| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: short, Madame d'Aubrion had cleverly made the very best of her
offspring. By means of full sleeves, deceptive pads, puffed dresses
amply trimmed, and high-pressure corsets, she had obtained such
curious feminine developments that she ought, for the instruction of
mothers, to have exhibited them in a museum.
Charles became very intimate with Madame d'Aubrion precisely because
she was desirous of becoming intimate with him. Persons who were on
board the brig declared that the handsome Madame d'Aubrion neglected
no means of capturing so rich a son-in-law. On landing at Bordeaux in
June, 1827, Monsieur, Madame, Mademoiselle d'Aubrion, and Charles
lodged at the same hotel and started together for Paris. The hotel
Eugenie Grandet |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: the fire. You may meet such a party coming home in the twilight:
the old woman laden with a fagot of chips, and the little ones
hauling a long branch behind them in her wake. That is the worst of
what there is to encounter; and if I tell you of what once happened
to a friend of mine, it is by no means to tantalise you with false
hopes; for the adventure was unique. It was on a very cold, still,
sunless morning, with a flat grey sky and a frosty tingle in the air,
that this friend (who shall here be nameless) heard the notes of a
key-bugle played with much hesitation, and saw the smoke of a fire
spread out along the green pine-tops, in a remote uncanny glen, hard
by a hill of naked boulders. He drew near warily, and beheld a
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde: absurd your saying that your name isn't Ernest. It's on your
cards. Here is one of them. [Taking it from case.] 'Mr. Ernest
Worthing, B. 4, The Albany.' I'll keep this as a proof that your
name is Ernest if ever you attempt to deny it to me, or to
Gwendolen, or to any one else. [Puts the card in his pocket.]
JACK. Well, my name is Ernest in town and Jack in the country, and
the cigarette case was given to me in the country.
ALGERNON. Yes, but that does not account for the fact that your
small Aunt Cecily, who lives at Tunbridge Wells, calls you her dear
uncle. Come, old boy, you had much better have the thing out at
once.
|
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Bucolics by Virgil: Warned by a raven on the left, cut short
The rising feud, nor I, your Moeris here,
No, nor Menalcas, were alive to-day.
LYCIDAS
Alack! could any of so foul a crime
Be guilty? Ah! how nearly, thyself,
Reft was the solace that we had in thee,
Menalcas! Who then of the Nymphs had sung,
Or who with flowering herbs bestrewn the ground,
And o'er the fountains drawn a leafy veil?-
Who sung the stave I filched from you that day
|
